ISTEP no issue for amateurs

February 25, 2006

The Indiana General Assembly shouldn't decide whether to move ISTEP testing to the spring based on whether a move would cost $45 million as opponents have claimed. The Indiana General Assembly shouldn't decide whether to move ISTEP testing to the spring. Period. This is a decision for professionals. It isn't a decision for rank amateurs -- and partisan ones at that. It was evident when the House passed a bill to move ISTEP to the spring that a majority saw nothing wrong with adding ISTEP to a partisan agenda. Fortunately, the Senate Education Committee struck a compromise that stripped the spring testing requirement from the bill. The Senate version calls instead for a long-term testing plan to be devised by the Education Department. It isn't over until the session is over. Because the House did pass a bill of its own, it's possible that the testing move could be resurrected in a House-Senate conference. It should not be. We don't say that because we know spring testing to be bad. We say it because ISTEP is an educational tool that is meant to help teachers evaluate students' understanding of subject matter. People who know how to use the tool should make the decision, not politicians or newspaper editors. The mandate that the Education Department devise a long-term testing plan is appropriate. The Senate is exercising its oversight, telling the Education Department that it needs to justify its decisions publicly. There's nothing wrong with that. The Senate bill calls for the Education Department's plan to be presented to the State Board of Education by Oct. 1. It could include keeping ISTEP where it is, moving it to the spring, or replacing it with a different test altogether. Whatever it includes, the plan will be the result of due consideration, not a political whim.